An American Tale: Incarnations of the Wizard of Oz and the Negotiation of Identity, Race, and Gender, in Popular Culture

Authors

Carly A. Orshan, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Major/Program

English

First Advisor's Name

Steven Blevins

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Kenneth Johnson

Third Advisor's Name

Heather Russell

Keywords

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Wizard of Oz, Wicked, Evil, Good, American Myth, National Identity, Race, Gender, Class, Popular Culture, American Culture, Terrorism, Other, Nationalism, Reproduction, Commodification, Deconstruction, Historical, Ideological

Date of Defense

7-13-2012

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to address the way in which several quite varied and often commodified representations of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) express and reproduce shifting notions of national identity within American culture across the twentieth century and at the beginning of our own. This thesis pursues the question of national identity that the American myth perpetuates throughout the twentieth century and examines the shift in citizenship through representations found in popular culture’s re-writings of the Wizard of Oz tale. This thesis evaluates both original and contemporary adaptations of the Oz story and their deconstruction for sociohistorical representations of racial, gendered, class, and national identity. I argue, that the numerous historical and ideological comparisons from the Oz tale reflect our own world in our discussions of identity, race, class, and gender and have become significant reflections of our own imaginations and national identity.

Identifier

FI12080634

Recommended Citation

Orshan, Carly A., "An American Tale: Incarnations of the Wizard of Oz and the Negotiation of Identity, Race, and Gender, in Popular Culture" (2012). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 676.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/676